Photo Friday: Not a Workstation, a Walkstation

Ted and Margaret on FitWork Workstations

This week’s photograph was taken by Kristen Juel using her mobile device (hence the blurriness – original photo posted at Twitpic here) of myself and Margaret Laws, Director of Innovations for the Underserved Program for The California Healthcare Foundation, during one of the open space networking sessions at the Innovation Learning Network in person meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The topic of this session of open space networking was, of course, the walking meeting, which is a simple innovation that can transform everything from business conversations to clinical care (imagine a medical center equipped with a sound insulated walking track in its perimeter, to allow clinicians and patients to walk and talk about their daily lives).

These workstations, called Fitwork, are manufactured by Steelcase and allow users to walk at up to 2 miles per hour, while working on their computers or talking on the phone.

There are so few reasons not to have walking meetings, why not try one this week? I’ve compiled some of the evidence behind their benefits along with a handy guide to getting started.

8 Comments

Loved the homemade walkstation you posted Ted! I've been an avid walker on and off for 25 years and three years ago bought a tread mill because having time to walk when away from work was becoming more difficult. I do walk at lunchtime and when meeting with some colleagues. But it's never enough. I use to tread the mill at my gym, so I thought it would an easy migration, but as a lover of nature it has been absolutely torturous to walk indoors (although i would love the opportunity to do so while at my desk at work). I LOVE the idea of a walkingstation at home, so your revolution has begun, the torch has been passed and as soon as I figure out how to jerry rig a desk top to the my treadmill, I'm off to the races. Literally. Thanks much for posting. Stay well!

Ted Eytan, MD